Uganda's LRA to assemble only if army pulls out-Otti
Source: Reuters
(Updates with government reaction) By Tim Cocks KAMPALA, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels said on Thursday they would assemble in southern Sudan as agreed under a landmark truce only if the Ugandan army withdrew from the area completely. Speaking on the eve of a deadline by which the rebels are to gather in two assembly points while talks continue to end one of Africa's longest wars, LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti indicated the agreement was collapsing. Otti accused the Ugandan army of using the agreed assembly areas to set up a military trap. "We will not assemble because that is their plan," Otti told Reuters by satellite telephone from his jungle hideout on the Sudan/Congo border. "That one (the agreement) is now negative." Uganda's government responded that peace talks would continue, despite what it called repeated efforts by the rebels to stall the process by staging walk-outs. Otti's comments came a day after delegates representing the LRA at peace talks in the south Sudanese capital, Juba, said they would walk out, accusing the army of killing three rebel fighters as they moved towards an assembly area. "This is not the first time this has happened," the head of the government's negotiating team, Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, told journalists in Kampala. "To us, it is routine. They will come back." ARMY DENIES A landmark truce signed in August and renewed last month had raised hopes of an end to a two-decade civil war that has killed tens of thousands and uprooted 1.7 million. The renewed truce gave the rebels until Friday to gather at Ri-Kwangba, on the Sudan/Congo border near the leaders' jungle hideouts, and Owiny-Ki-Bul, on the Sudan/Uganda border. But Otti said the army must withdraw from south Sudan or the LRA would not assemble. "I am now thinking it is better to end the war through conflict than talking," he said. Army spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye said the army had withdrawn from areas anywhere near the LRA in south Sudan and so could not have attacked them. "There was no clash," he said. Otti said the LRA had no immediate plans to resume hostilities but warned he would order his fighters to move back into Uganda if they were attacked again. "Isn't it a coincidence that this should happen on the eve of the deadline when we expected the LRA to have assembled?" asked Uganda's Foreign Affairs State Minister Oryem Okello. "This is mischief to wriggle out of (what) they signed." Aid agencies are concerned the LRA would again wreak havoc on a population already traumatised by 20 years of war if they returned to northern Uganda. The LRA fighters are feared for killing civilians, mutilating victims and abducting children to use as soldiers and sex slaves. Otti reiterated that the LRA would not make peace unless the International Criminal Court dropped indictments against its five top commanders, including leader Joseph Kony.
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
